The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) employee who criticized the company’s culture in a newspaper column is a wise person “who told it like it is,” according to U.S. Representative Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat.

Greg Smith’s New York Times oped told the story of a Wall Street firm with a proud tradition that “has lost its way,” Welch, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said today in a Bloomberg Television Interview.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Cook in Washington at pcook6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gregory Mott at gmott1@bloomberg.net